Original idea or imitation?

Rating: 6/10 (1 November 2006)

If you watch "The Island", without any information before start the movie, you'll be surprised about the story. The whole idea of a contamination and 'a clone for everyone with money' is a bit bizarre.
This movie is located in the future, and it starts in a sort of underground Utopia with a lot of people in silly white costumes. I have to admit that it looks very futuristic, and there are a lot of nice special effects in the movie. My opinion is that they have exaggerated the action scenes, but maybe I just don't like action films very much. The movie would be better with a bit more story in it, in stead of action. The actors did a really good job, nothing to blame them. They look very innocent and they bring the movie on a higher level with their acting performance.
Personally I think that the director of this movie valued the form more than the content. Undoubtedly the makers spent a lot of time with all the futuristic effects and gadgets. What I like in the movie, is that when you start watching it you don't know that all the people in the building, even the head characters. But the good beginning is not progressed in the rest of the movie.
Unfortunately, the story itself isn't a very new one. I think the basic idea is very similar to the book "Brave New World", written by Huxley. There are a lot of comparisons with that book.
First of all, it's the setting. The head building of the movie is located in a sort of tremendous factory. But if I read the descriptions of the centre in "Brave New World", I get a picture in my head that is quite equal to this building. Thereafter is the mean character of "The Island" almost based on one of the characters in the book: Bernard Marx. He failed in the new world because of his inferior mental level. And I think Lincoln Six Echo is like Bernard Marx. He is smarter than the rest, he is constantly asking a lot of things that he's not allowed to, and he is doubting if the contamination is true. At third, there is the sleep-teaching, called hypnopaedia. In the book the 'children' (they are not born, but made like a product in a factory) get moral lessons in their sleep. In the movie the clones (are not born either!) are taught in their sleep too, they have to collect some general memories. And all the clones get moral lessons during the day, like "a healthy person is a happy person". The idea of dividing the clones into different groups (their work for example) isn't very original either. In "Brave New World" the citizens are also divided into a couple of groups: the alphas, betas, gammas, deltas and epsilons. And after work, the clones in "The Island" even go to a sort of recreation room, like 'the feelies' in the book.
So what I wanted to say with this review, is that the movie looks like a good idea and a well-done futuristic creation on the one hand, but on the other hand it's more a sort of stolen idea of an old book.